THE 


/_ _ .  . 


■iQ: 


MORRILL  LAND  GRANT. 


A  MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE, 
JUNE  21st,  1887,  AT  THE  CELEBRATION  OE  THE  TWENTY- 
FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  PASSAGE  OF 

THE  ACT. 


.  '  A 


Charles  Kendall  Adams,  LL.  D., 
President  of  Cornell  University . 


AMHERST,  MASS.: 

J.  E.  Williams,  Book  and  Job  Printer. 

1887. 


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MORRILL  LAND  GRANT. 


A  MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  AT  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE, 
JUNE  21st,  1887,  AT  THE  CELEBRATION  OF  THE  TWENTY- 
FIFTH  ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  PASSAGE  OF 

THE  ACT. 


Charles  Kendall  Adams,  LL.  D., 

President  of  Cornell  University . 


AMHERST,  MASS.: 

J.  E.  Williams,  Book  and  Job  Printer.  * 

1887. 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS. 


THE  MORRILL  LAND  GRANT. 


It  was  a  remarkable  evidence  of  the  confidence  and  the  composure 
of  our  federal  legislature  that  in  1862,  just  twenty-five  years  ago, 
they  were  able  to  give  their  thoughts  to  the  framing  of  that  far- 
reaching  act,  in  commemoration  of  which  we  are  to-day  assembled. 
It  was  at  one  of  the  most  anxious,  if  not  one  of  the  darkest  periods 
of  our  terrible  war.  The  first  great  organized  advance  of  the  feder¬ 
al  forces  was  just  coming  to  a  disastrous  end.  The  Peninsula  Cam¬ 
paign  in  which  were  centered  all  the  nation’s  hopes  had  taken  time 
for  the  most  complete  preparation  in  order  that  no  repulse  might  be 
possible.  Fair  Oaks,  G-aines  Mill,  Mechanicsville,  Cold  Harbor, 
Malvern  Hill, — names  that  even  now  send  a  shudder  into  thousands 
of  American  homes, — had  followed  in  rapid  succession,  and  our  baf- 
Ailed  army  took  up  its  retreat  on  the  second  of  July,  the  very  day  on 
which,  by  the  signature  of  the  President,  the  act  in  which  we  have 
rS  now  so  much  interest,  became  a  law.  Little  did  the  people  think 
that  at  the  very  moment  they  were  watching,  with  bated  breath  and 
tearful  eyes  for  every  new  sign  of  success  or  repulse,  there  was  go¬ 
ing  forward  to  completion  in  the  halls  of  legislation  at  the  National 
^  Capitol,  a  great  act  of  statesmanship  which  in  after  years  would 
y  bring  the  people  together,  as  we  are  assembled  here  to-day. 

,1  And  yet  a  great  act  of  statesmanship  it  was.  In  the  few  moments 
5  I  shall  detain  you  it  will  be  my  effort  to  show  that  its  spirit  was  con¬ 
ceived  in  accordance  with  the  best  traditions  of  our  country,  that  its 


4 


provisions  were  in  harmonious  accord  with  the  general  spirit  of  the 
time,  and  that  it  was  fraught  with  the  means  of  incalculable  advan¬ 
tage  to  the  nation.  To  these  three  considerations,  then,  1  briefly  in¬ 
vite  your  attention. 

Within  the  last  twenty-five  years  the  policy  of  rendering  national 
and  state  aid  to  educational  institutions  has  sometimes  been  gravely 
questioned.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  work  of  education,  in  any 
other  than  a  purely  elementary  sense,  should  be  left  to  the  care  of 
private  benevolence.  This,  however,  was  not  the  doctrine  of  the 
fathers.  As  was  so  eloquently  shown  fifty  years  ago,  when  the  ora¬ 
tor  selected  to  represent  Harvard,  and  Amherst,  and  Williams  plead¬ 
ed  the  cause  of  the  colleges  before  the  Legislature  of  Massachu¬ 
setts,  it  was  the  states  acting  in  their  organized  capacity,  that  pro¬ 
vided  for  the  means  of  higher  education  as  well  as  for  the  common 
schools. 

Look  at  the  facts  of  that  early  history.  Years  before  the  famous 
common  school  law  was  passed,  provision  had  been  made  for  the 
founding  of  a  college,  by  means  of  a  tax  levied  upon  the  whole  peo¬ 
ple  of  the  Colony.  As  Mr.  Everett  said,  scarcely  had  the  feet  of 
the  Pilgrims  taken  hold  of  Plymouth  Rock,  when  a  year’s  rate  of  the 
Colony  was  levied  in  order  that  the  higher  learning  might  have  a 
home  in  the  New  World.  Nor  was  the  child  of  this  parentage  left 
to  any  such  precarious  support  as  might  be  afforded  by  private  be¬ 
nevolence.  The  Court  Records  of  Massachusetts  in  the  colonial 
period  are  sprinkled  over  with  evidences  of  the  most  solicitous  care. 
It  was  in  the  days  of  poverty.  The  subsistence  of  the  president 
and  the  professors  or  tutors,  as  they  were  then  called,  was  immedi¬ 
ately  dependent  on  the  bounty  of  the  commonwealth.  Appropria¬ 
tions  for  buildings  and  for  lands  were  from  time  to  time  made.  The 
income  of  the  ferry  between  Boston  and  Cambridge  was  appropriated 
by  the  General  Court  to  the  use  of  the  college.  The  legislature  se¬ 
lected  the  controlling  board.  In  short,  Harvard  College  was  an  in¬ 
stitution  of  the  government,  founded  bv  it,  supported  by  it  and  con¬ 
trolled  by  it.  Before  the  days  of  independence  arrived,  more  than 
a  hundred  different  statutes  had  been  spread  upon  the  legislative 
record  for  the  purpose  of  guiding  and  assisting  this  child  of  the  in¬ 
fant  state.  Even  in  the  constitution  of  1780  it  was  declared  forever 
to  be  the  duty  of  the  legislature  to  encourage  higher  learning  and 
especially  the  University  at  Cambridge.  And  it  was  not  until  the 
sons  of  the  college  had  multiplied  and  grown  rich,  that  the  legisla- 


5 


ture  said  to  them  as  late  as  1865  :  you  can  now  care  for  your  benig¬ 
nant  mother  better  than  I  can,  therefore  I  pension  her  off  and  en¬ 
trust  her  fortunes  to  your  generous  keeping. 

The  policy  of  Massachusetts  was  the  policy  of  Connecticut. 
Long  before  Eliliu  Yale  gave  the  final  impulse  for  the  founding  of 
the  college  which  was  to  bear  his  name,  the  General  Court  had  care¬ 
fully' considered  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution.  The  sub¬ 
ject  was  postponed  from  time  to  time,  not  because  there  was  any 
question  as  to  the  propriety  of  founding  such  an  institution  ;  but  be¬ 
cause  the  population  was  as  yet  too  sparse  and  too  poor  to  furnish  the 
pupils  for  two  colleges  in  New  England.  And  so  it  was  not  till  more 
than  sixty  years  had  passed  after  the  founding  of  Harvard  that  the 
second  New  England  College  was  established.  But  after  its  estab¬ 
lishment  its  history  was  much  like  that  of  its  elder  sister.  During 
the  whole  of  the  last  century,  as  the  first  President  Dwight  has  said 
in  his  History,  it  was  to  the  bounty  of  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut 
that  the  support  of  Yale  College  was  chiefly  due.  Again  and  again 
all  other  resources  failed.  It  was  the  legislature  that  erected  old 
Connecticut  Hall  and  gave  to  it  the  name  of  its  benefactor. 

Then  look  at  the  history  of  Dartmouth.  The  college  began  as  a 
work  of  charity.  Gradually  it  grew  into  something  more  than  a 
secondary  school.  But  during  the  years  of  its  early  growth,  it  never 
hesitated  to  call  for  aid  upon  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  ; 
and  its  call  was  seldom  heard  in  vain.  It  educated  many  of  the  sons 
of  Vermont,  and  in  due  time  it  called  upon  the  Green  Mountain 
State  for  its  share  of  assistance.  A  cheerful  recognition  of  the  ob¬ 
ligation  was  the  result.  The  land  of  a  township  was  given  to  the 
college,  and  a  record  of  the  fact  was  stamped  into  the  history  and 
upon  the  map  of  the  state  by  giving  to  the  town  the  name  of  the 
college  president. 

What  was  true  of  the  method  that  prevailed  in  New  England  was 
also  true  of  the  South.  William  and  Mary,  the  second  college  estab¬ 
lished  in  the  Colonies,  took  its  name  from  the  royal  benefactors  who 
made  the  first  large  contribution  for  its  support  out  of  the  public 
treasury.  The  Colony  was  also  taxed  in  behalf  of  the  institution. 
A  part  of  the  value  of  every  pound  of  tobacco  raised  in  Virginia  had 
to  go  into  the  treasury  for  the  benefit  of  the  college.  This  contin¬ 
ued  throughout  colonial  days.  Vnd  when  Jefferson  conceived  the 
plan  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  in  some  respects  the  grandest  ed- 


6 


ucational  project  ever  devised  in  America,  though  he  was  inclined  to 
intrust  less  authority  to  the  government  than  any  other  of  our  fore¬ 
fathers,  he  endeavored  to  make  the  institution  as  much  a  part  of  the 
educational  system  of  the  state  as  were  the  common  schools  them¬ 
selves. 

This  method  of  supporting  the  colleges,  moreover,  was  not  only 
universal,  it  was  also  effectual  in  that  it  planted  and  nourished  into 
maturity  colleges  of  a  high  order  of  merit  even  in  the  infant  days  of 
our  national  life.  Not  only  were  admirable  scholars  made,  but  they 
were  made  in  large  numbers.  The  standards  of  those  days,  it  is 
true,  were  somewhat  different  from  the  standards  of  our  days  ;  but 
one  who  looks  at  what  was  done,  while  recognizing  great  differences, 
will  hesitate  long  before  he  pronounces  them  inferior.  A  recent  and 
eminent  superintendent  of  education  in  your  own  state  not  long 
since  pronounced  the  opinion  that  the  standards  of  higher  education 
in  colonial  days  were  not  simply  relatively,  but  actually  higher  than 
the  standards  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  am 
not  here  to  corroborate  this  statement  or  even  to  express  an  opinion 
on  that  point.  But  we  may  regard  it  as  certain  that  the  schools  that 
could  train  the  men  of  revolutionary  days  were  efficient  and  were 
among  the  most  valuable  institutions  of  colonial  time. 

And  when  we  pass  on  from  colonial  days  to  the  days  of  the  re¬ 
public,  we  find  that  the  propriety  and  the  justice  of  these  methods 
were  universally  recognized.  That  first  great  ordinance  which  still 
sheds  its  benign  influence  over  the  Northwest,  provided  that 
‘‘Schools  and  the  means  of  education  shall  forever  be  encouraged.” 
And  from  the  day  of  that  benignant  provision  to  the  present  time, 
no  territory  has  been  organized  and  no  state  has  been  admitted  to  the 
Union  without  provision  that  a  part  of  its  domain  shall  be  set  apart 
for  higher  learning  as  well  as  a  part  for  the  common  schools. 

Thus  it  is  that  I  hold  the  Land  Grant  of  1862  to  have  been  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  best  traditions  of  our  educational  history. 

The  second  part  of  my  thesis  is  that  the  Morrill  Land  Grant  was 
in  strict  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  present  time. 

We,  doubtless,  sometimes  talk  flippantly  and  unwisely  of  what  we 
call  the  spirit  of  the  age.  And  yet  the  age  in  which  we  live  has  cer¬ 
tain  peculiarities  which  we  can  hardly  go  astray  in  trying  to  char¬ 
acterize.  They  are  so  distinctly  marked,  indeed  they  are  so  generally 
acknowledged  and  understood  that  even  to  speak  of  them,  subjects 
one  to  the  charge  of  dealing  with  the  common-place.  But  the  relation 


7 


of  these  characteristics  to  matters  of  education  is  so  important  that 
I  shall  venture  briefly  to  speak  of  them. 

During  the  middle  ages  the  work  of  the  schools  was  limited  to 
the  education  of  those  who  were  to  go  into  the  learned  professions. 
It  is  even  a  matter  of  some  doubt  whether  the  great  Charles,  the 
organizer  of  schools  in  France  and  Germany  could  himself  write  or 
read.  It  is  certain  that  one  of  the  greatest  of  French  military  lead¬ 
ers,  as  late  as  the  time  when  the  Renaissance  was  beginning  to  dawn, 
was  absolutely  illiterate. 

Nor  was  this  condition  of  affairs  a  singular  one,  or  one  that  should 
excite  our  surprise.  Before  the  introduction  of  the  Baconian  philos¬ 
ophy,  the  methods  of  looking  at  the  problems  of  life  were  the  reverse 
of  the  methods  that  have  now  come  to  prevail.  Aristotle  said,  44  Look 
into  your  own  minds,  study  the  nature  of  thought,  look  into  the  nature 
of  things,  and  thus  you  will  be  able  to  reason  out  the  course  of  con¬ 
duct  you  ought  to  pursue.”  The  Aristotelian  philosophy  prevailed 
until  the  seventeenth  century.  At  length  came  Bacon  and  Descartes. 
Their  methods  were  the  opposite.  They  said,  study  things  not  so 
much  in  their  nature, — which  you  cannot  know  anything  about  by  a 
process  of  reasoning — as  in  their  characteristics  and  relations.  Yon 
are  to  reason  from  their  external  appearance  and  characteristics  which 
everybody  can  investigate  and  in  some  sense  at  least  understand  into 
their  internal  natures.  Thus  it  was  that  the  Baconian  or  inductive 
philosophy  had  for  its  aim  the  setting  of  all  thinking  beings  to  the 
examining  of  the  things  everywhere  about  them.  It  taught  not  only 
that  the  domain  of  thought,  but  also  that  the  domain  of  action,  was 
open  to  the  scrutiny  of  human  intelligence.  It  exhorted  everybody 
to  pry  into  whatever  there  was  within  the  range  of  observation. 
Examine  the  methods  of  nature,  in  order  to  discover  the  laws  of 
nature.  Examine  the  habits  of  animals  in  order  to  become  acquainted 
with  the  laws  of  their  development.  Study  the  rocks,  the  trees,  the 
plants,  the  flowers,  in  fact,  study  all  the  domain  of  nature,  in  order 
to  discover  the  secrets  of  nature.  The  exhortation  was  followed  in 
the  course  of  the  last  century  by  the  birth  of  what  are  called  the  Nat¬ 
ural  Sciences. 

It  is  not  singular  that  this  method  immediately  began  to  insist  on 
the  examination  of  institutions  as  well  as  the  things  of  nature.  Here¬ 
tofore,  the  rights  of  the  church,  the  rights  of  the  king,  the  rights  of 
all  governing  powers,  rested,  not  on  any  evidence  that  such  forms 
and  methods  by  actual  experience  had  been  shown  to  conduce  to  the 


8 


largest  happiness  of  man,  but  rather  on  some  preconceived  right  that 
was  founded  on  authority  either  human  or  divine.  But  now  came  a 
change.  The  Baconian  philosophy  taught  that  men  might  examine 
the  conduct  of  government ;  and  they  drew  the  logical  inference  that 
if  they  might  examine,  they  might  act  on  the  results  of  examination. 
This  they  did  not  hesitate  to  do.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the 
immortal  work  of  Bacon  which  embodied  and  put  into  permanent 
scientific  form  the  results  of  his  studies  and  the  substance  of  his  phi¬ 
losophy  was  published  in  1620,  the  very  year  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Ply¬ 
mouth,  just  twenty-two  years  before  the  vigorous  outbreak  of  the 
English  Revolution. 

Now  what  was  the  educational  significance  of  this  movement? 
Why,  simply  this.  It  opened  the  whole  realm  of  nature  as  the  legit¬ 
imate  field  of  investigation  and  study.  Before  this  time  the  work  of 
the  schools  and  universities  had  been  confined  to  developing  the  minds 
of  the  pupil  and  the  teaching  of  the  four  learned  professions — theol¬ 
ogy,  medicine,  law,  and  pedagogy.  Universities  had  been  established 

A 

in  the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  centuries  in-  all 
parts  of  Europe,  but  in  no  one  of  them  were  studies  carried  on  in 
accordance  with  the  modern  investigating  spirit.  This  is  not  strange, 
for  the  sciences  had  not  yet  been  born.  They  could  not  come  into  ■ 
existence  till  the  investigating  or  inductive  methods  of  study  had 
come  to  prevail,  and  these  methods  it  was  that  the  Baconian  philoso¬ 
phy  ushered  in. 

A  change  of  this  nature  was  necessarily  slow  in  making  itself 
observed.  But  there  was  here  and  there  a  man  who  caught  the  new 
spirit  and  preached  the  new  doctrine.  The  most  enlightened  man  of 
the  next  generation  was  Milton.  He  had  in  the  vast  stores  of  his 
mind  all  the  wealth  of  ancient  learning.  But  he  saw  the  full  signifi¬ 
cance  of  the  new  philosophy  and  so  every  page  of  his  tractate  on 
Education  is  redolent  with  the  modern  spirit.  Here  are  some  of  his 
words,  “I  call  therefore  a  complete  and  generous  education,  that 
which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly,  skillfully,  and  magnanimously  all 
the  offices,  both  private  and  public  of  peace  and  war.”  This  com¬ 
prehensive  definition  might  not  inaptly  be  emblazoned  as  a  motto 
upon  the  walls  of  every  one  of  the  institutions  founded  by  the  Mor¬ 
rill  Grant  of  1862. 

But  the  doctrine  of  Milton  was  slow  in  permeating  educated  soci¬ 
ety.  Institutions  of  learning  are  proverbially  conservative.  The 
universities  resisted  all  change  until  the  necessity  of  change  made 


9 


itself  everywhere  apparent.  A  century  passed  on  during  which  the 
ideas  of  Bacon  and  Milton  were  gradually  infiltratrating  themselves 
into  the  minds  of  the  people.  Then  came  the  great  book  of  Adam 
Smith  on  the  Wealth  of  Nations, — a  book  which  is  entitled  to  this 
distinction  that  by  combining  the  Aristotelian  with  the  Baconian 
methods  it  sought  to  establish  a  science  of  wealth  on  a  philosophical 
basis.  The  premises  and  the  reasoning  on  which  conclusions  were 
founded  were  not  in  my  judgment  without  great  errors  ;  but  the  book 
had  its  bearings  on  education  scarcely  less  important  than  its  bearings 
on  political  economy  and  finance.  Its  teachings  were  essentially  this  : 
the  best  thing  government  can  do  with  men,  as  a  rule ,  is  simply  to 
protect  them  against  abuses  from  their  fellows,  and  then  let  them 
alone.  This  doctrine,  however  faulty, — and  civilization  is  now  teach¬ 
ing  that  it  is  full  of  faults, — carried  with  it  this  logical  conclusion. 
If  it  be  true,  that  men  will  most  successfully  work  out  their  own  for- 
tune  and  destiny,  when  not  interfered  with  by  government,  it  follows 
that  they  must  acquire  the  general  intelligence  suitable  for  self  guid¬ 
ance,  and,  consequently,  that  far  more  generous  provisions  for  edu¬ 
cation  must  be  made  than  had  ever  before  been  provided  for. 

These  doctrines  of  Adam  Smith,  moreover,  were  in  complete  har¬ 
mony  with  what  are  commonly  called  the  revolutionary  doctrines  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  century.  Jefferson,  as  well  as  Adam  Smith, 
preached  the  doctrine  of  letting  men  and  things  alone.  And  it  was 
precisely  because  kings  and  parliaments  and  nobles  and  hereditary 
lords  would  not  let  men  and  things  alone,  that  the  revolution  came 
on  in  America,  and,  a  little  later,  in  France. 

There  is  another  phase  of  the  course  of  events  that  is  worthy  of 
note.  While  the  revolutionary  ideas  in  regard  to  the  proper  attitude 
of  government  toward  the  people  were  taking  root  there  was  another 
revolution  going  on  which  had  even  greater  significance.  The  Bacon¬ 
ian  doctrine  of  investigation  was  beginning  to  bear  fruit.  As  a -con¬ 
sequence  the  modern  sciences  had  come  into  being.  In  all  parts  of 
the  world  every  bright  boy  wns  looking  into  things.  Every  intelligent 
man  was  thinking  of  the  ways  by  which  his  means  of  subsistence 
could  be  improved.  You  know  the  result  was  the  most  remarkable 
succession  of  inventions  that  history  has  ever  known  anything  about. 
The  power  loom,  the  spinning  jenny,  the  application  of  steam  to  the 
driving  of  machinery,  the  cotton  gin,  the  invention  of  the  locomotive 
engine,  the  building  of  roads  and  canals,  not  only  changed  the  meth¬ 
ods  of  existence  from  top  to  bottom,  but  also  made  everybody  the 

2 


10 


near  neighbor  of  everybody  else.  Contemplate  one  or  two  simple 
facts.  At  the  middle  of  the  last  century  it  was  still  the  regular 
method  of  conveying  freight  in  England  between  London  and  the 
interior  to  put  it  into  crooks  thrown  across  the  backs  of  mules,  and 
send  it  along  the  narrow  pathways  that  crossed  the  country.  But 
what  a  miracle  was  soon  wrought.  When  Emerson  visited  England 
about  the  middle  of  the  present  century  he  recorded  in  his  “  Notes” 
that  the  working  power  of  steam  in  Great  Britain  alone,  was  equal 
to  the  strength  of  six  hundred  millions  of  men  :  and  that  thirty-six 
thousand  ships  were  employed  in  carrying  British  products  to  distant 
parts  of  the  world.  What  a  mighty  revolution  was  that? 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  these  two  revolutions,  the  political 
and  philosophical  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  social  and  economic  on 
the  other,  were  strictly  contemporaneous.  As  we  said  that  the  date 
of  the  Novum  Organum  was  the  date  of  the  Pilgrims  ;  so  we  may 
note  that  the  date  of  the  “Wealth  of  Nations”  and  of  the  patents 
of  Watt  and  Bolton  were  all  within  the  years  of  our  revolutionary 
war. 

Now  it  is  a  curious  fact,  that  although  it  was  in  England  that 
these  two  revolutions  had  their  origin,  it  was  also  in  England  that 
the  educational  results  of  these  revolutions  were  slowest  and  latest 
in  making  themselves  felt.  The  reason,  however,  is  not  far  to  seek. 
England  was  the  first  to  take  advantage  of  the  new  inventions. 
Factories  had  sprung  into  existence  on  every  hill  side  and  on  every 
stream,  and  British  goods  had  taken  possession  of  every  market  in 
the  world.  The  statesmen  in  France  and  Germany  saw  that  nothing 
but  a  systematic  establishment  of  technical  schools  would  regain  for 
the  nations  of  the  continent  the  industrial  importance  which  they 
had  lost.  And  so  industrial  and  technical  schools  were  rapidly  es¬ 
tablished.  The  Ecole  Polytechnique  came  into  existence  in  1795. 
A  school  of  similar  purpose  was  established  at  Chalons  in  1802  ;  an¬ 
other  at  Angers  in  1811,  and  another  at  Aix  in  1843.  The  still  more 
famous  Ecole  Centrale  at  Paris  came  into  existence  in  1829  with  its 
array  of  schools  for  the  education  of  mechanical  engineers,  civil  en¬ 
gineers,  chemists  and  architects.  Besides  these  there  were  estab¬ 
lished  a  vast  number  of  trade  schools  of  every  kind,  with  shops  for 
the  teaching  of  methods  of  working  in  wood  and  iron  and  brass  and 
other  metals.  In  Paris  alone  there  are  more  than  a  hundred  such 
schools  open  alike  to  natives  and  to  foreigners. 

In  Germany  the  activity  in  this  direction  has  been  even  more 


11 


marked.  Austria  has  seven  great  technical  schools  and  Prussia  has 
nine.  The  new  home  of  the  Polytechnic  at  Berlin,  perhaps  the  fin¬ 
est  educational  building  in  the  world,  has,  it  is  said,  accommodations 
for  no  less  than  four  thousand  students. 

Moreover,  besides  these  great  centres  of  the  higher  grades  of  tech¬ 
nical  education,  there  is  a  vast  number  of  schools  of  a  more  elemen¬ 
tary  grade.  These  are  grouped  about  every  industrial  nucleus  in  the 
country.  In  Hamburg  alone  nearly  a  hundred  teachers  are  employed 
to  give  instruction  in  technical  and  industrial  subjects  to  the  thou¬ 
sands  of  pupils  that  throng  the  rooms.  At  the  little  mountain  city 
of  Chemnitz  in  Saxony  there  are  five  higher  technical  and  trade 
schools,  and  so  successful  have  these  schools  been  within  the  past 
few  years  in  producing  skilled  labor,  that  from  the  single  county  of 
Nottingham,  in  England,  it  is  said  that  more  than  half  a  score  of 
great  manufacturing  firms  have  transferred  their  machinery  to  Sax¬ 
ony  in  order  to  avail  themselves  of  the  superior  workmanship  that  is 
there  offered.  And  it  is  in  this  way  that  Germany,  by  means  of 
her  technical  schools,  is  taking  from  England  her  industrial  suprem¬ 
acy.  * 

At  last  England  has  come  to  see  her  danger.  At  Manchester,  at 
Sheffield,  at  Birmingham,  and  in  London  technical  schools  of  some 
merit  have  recently  been  established.  At  last  the  scholastic  tran¬ 
quility  of  Cambridge  even  has  been  disturbed  by  the  noise  of  the 
saws  and  the  lathes  and  the  planing  machines  of  a  technical  school ; 
and  even  old  Eton,  that  has  rested  for  centimes  in  its  quiet  beauty 
under  the  shadows  of  Windsor  Castle,  and  for  centuries  has  been 
the  favorite  school  of  the  scions  of  nobility,  has  been  obliged  to  yield 
to  the  universal  demand.  By  establishing  a  technical  annex  she,  how¬ 
ever  unwillingly,  has  paid  tribute  to  the  inevitable. 

But  this  is  only  one  phase  of  the  general  movement.  The  other, 
that  which  pertains  to  agriculture,  is  equally  striking  and  equally  im¬ 
portant. 

Agricultural  schools  were  established  in  Germany  early  in  the  pres¬ 
ent  century.  But  it  was  not  till  after  Liebig  in  1844  published  his 
famous  work  on  “Chemistry  as  applied  to  Agriculture”  that  any  real 
impulse  was  given  to  agricultural  schools.  But  Liebig  proved  be¬ 
yond  the  possibility  of  doubt  two  things.  The  one  was  that  however 
great  the  draft  upon  the  soil,  the  fertility  may  be  fully  maintained 
and  even  increased  by  restoring  to  the  soil  the  mineral  and  the  organ¬ 
ic  matter  taken  from  it  at  the  harvest.  The  second  truth,  and  one 

*  v 


12 


even  more  important  than  the  other,  was  that  the  proportions  and 
quantities  of  the  ingredients  taken  up  by  the  crop  are  so  variable  and 
so  different  under  differing  circumstances  that  nothing  less  than  a 
careful  and  scientific  study  of  soils  will  enable  one  to  restore  those 
ingredients  in  the  most  efficient  and  economical  proportions.  It  was 
accordingly  held  that  for  the  encouragement  of  such  studies,  schools 
of  agriculture  must  be  multiplied. 

And  from  that  day  to  this  the  number  as  well  as  the  efficiency  of 
the  schools  has  steadily  increased.  Prussia  alone  has  four  higher 
agricultural  colleges  with  some  eighty  professorships  ;  she  has  more 
than  forty  lesser  schools,  all  having  model  farms  ;  she  has  five  spe¬ 
cial  schools  for  the  cultivation  of  meadows  and  the  scientific  study  of 
methods  of  irrigation  ;  she  has  one  special  school  for  the  teaching  of 
those  who  desire  to  reclaim  swamp  lands  ;  she  has  two  special  schools 
for  teaching  thegrowingof  fruit  trees  in  industrial  nurseries  ;  she  has 
a  school  for  teaching  horse-shoeing  ;  one  for  teaching  silk  raising  ;  one 


for  the  raising  of  bees  ;  and  one  for  teaching  the  cultivating  of  fish. 
Besides  all  these  she  has  twenty  special  schools  for  the  education  of 
gardeners  ;  and  fifteen  schools  for  tlffi  training  of  those  who  are  to 
cultivate  the  grape. 

The  example  of  Prussia  has  been  imitated  by  the  other  German 
states.  The  little  Kingdom  of  Bavaria,  scarcely  larger  than  Massa¬ 
chusetts,  has  twenty-six  agricultural  colleges,  besides  more  than  two 
hundred  agricultural  associations.  Wurtemberg,  still  smaller  in 
area,  has  sixteen  colleges,  and  seventy-six  associations.  Baden, 
with  a  population  of  only  a  million,  has  fourteen  agricultural  col¬ 
leges  besides  four  schools  of  gardening  and  forestry.  Saxony,  with 
its  dense  population  of  two  millions  compacted  into  a  space  hardly 
larger  than  two  American  counties,  has  four  higher  colleges  and 
twenty  agricultural  schools  besides  a  veterinary  college,  and  a  de¬ 
partment  of  agriculture  of  twenty  professors  at  the  University  of 
Leipsic.  Saxe  Weimar,  with  a  population  of  no  more  than  230,000 
souls  has  three  agricultural  colleges  besides  an  agricultural  depart¬ 
ment  with  fifteen  professorships  at  the  University  of  Jena. 

And  what  has  been  the  result?  Simply  this,  that  while  in  every 
one  of  the  American  states,  as  is  shown  by  the  agricultural  reports, 
the  average  crop  per  acre  has  been  steadily  growing  less  and  less,* 


^Authority  for  this  statement  may  be  found  in  the  Report  of  the  Commission  of  Agri¬ 
culture  for  the  year  1886,  p.  19.  It  is  there  shown  that  the  average  yield  of  the  leading 
cereals,  between  1870  and  1879  was  considerably  greater  than  that  from  1879  to  1885.  The 
diminution  is  shown  by  the  following  figures  :  The  average  corn  crop  declined  from  20.8 
to  25.1  bushels  per  acre;  Wheat,  from  12.5  to  12.1;  Oats,  from  27.5  to  27.2;  Rye,  from  14.2  to 
12.8;  Barley,  from  22.4  to  22.08;  and'  Buckwheat,  from  17.5  to  13.6. 


13 


the  average  crop  in  Germany  has  been  as  steadily  growing  more  and 
more.  In  view  of  these  facts,  we  ought  to  bow  our  heads  in  humili¬ 
ty  if  not  in  shame.  At  least  let  ns  cease  our  unwarranted  boasting 
about  the  superiority  of  our  educational  facilities. 

Such  have  been  the  tendencies  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  I 
trust  that  you  will  now  agree  with*  me  in  thinking  that  the  Morrill 
Grant  in  purpose  and  in  aim  was  in  harmony  with  the  general  spirit 
and  the  best  tendencies  of  the  times. 

The  third  part  of  my  thesis  is  the  proposition  that  this  land  grant 
was  fraught  with  the  means  of  incalculable  advantage  to  the  nation. 

I  am  willing  to  concede  that  in  many  cases  the  avails  of  the  grant 
were  not  so  large  as  they  should  have  been.  If  it  were  necessary,  I 
would  admit  that  in  some  instances  there  was  a  conflict  between 
private  and  public  interests  and  that  in  consequence  there  was  a  cul¬ 
pable  misuse  of  the  funds;  I  say  “if  it  were  necessary,”  for  1  am 
not  aware  that  any  such  instances  are  clearly  established. 

But  if  there  were  even  general  misuse  of  the  funds,  would  the  fact 
prove  that  the  grant  was  unwise?  Because  there  is  misuse  and 
extravagance  in  the  building  of  Post  Offices  and  Custom  Houses,  do 
we  say  that  the  building  of  such  structures  should  cease  ?  Do  we 
argue  that  because  there  are  fraudulent  contracts  for  carrying  the 
mails,  therefore  contracts  for  the  further  carrying  of  the  mails  should 
cease?  Do  we  say  that  because  there  are  frauds  in  elections  there¬ 
fore  no  elections  shall  be  held?  No!  a  thousand  times  no!  We 
contemplate  the  good  we.  receive,  we  determine  to  prevent  the  recur¬ 
rence  of  abuses  in  the  future,  and  then  we  demand  those  appropria¬ 
tions  which  the  greatest  good  of  the  people  requires.  And  so  must 
it  be  in  judging  of  this  great  measure. 

And  now  having  said  so  much,  I  wish  to  allude  to  one  fact  that 
prevented  the  large  returns  from  the  grant  that  were  anticipated.  A 
majority  of  the  states  had  no  government  lands  within  their  borders 
subject  to  location  under  the  bill.  The  consequence  was  that  most 
of  the  states  were  obliged  to  sell  the  government  scrip  at  whatever 
price  it  would  bring.  The  market  was  flooded  with  scrip,  and  the 
states  found  themselves  confronted  with  this  dilemma.  Either  they 
must  sell  the  scrip  at  the  contemptible  price  of  thirty  or  fifty  cents 
per  acre,  or  they  must  postpone  the  establishment  and  development 
of  the  college.  It  is  not  easy  perhaps  to  decide  which  in  this  alter¬ 
native  was  the  wiser  course  to  pursue  ;  certain  it  is  that  when  the 
states  sold  the  scrip  at  a  low  price  they  practically  gave  back  to  the 


14 


people  in  the  way  of  profit  on  the  lands  a  large  share  of  what  Con¬ 
gress  had  in  the  first  instance  intended  for  the  colleges.  It  follows 
that  whatever  the  states  lost  in  selling  upon  a  low  market,  the  peo¬ 
ple  gained  in  buying,  and  are  in  equity  through  Congress  under  obli¬ 
gations  to  restore.  Fortunate  were  those  states  which,  although 
obliged  to  sell  the  scrip,  found  buyers  who  were  willing  to  locate  the 
lands  and  give  proper  guaranty  to  turn  over  the  profits  to  the  college 
established. 

But  notwithstanding  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  realizing  the  full 
value  of  the  Grant,  no  one,  I  imagine  will  have  the  hardihood  to  deny 
that  a  great,  an  immense  good  has  been  accomplished.  Look  at  a 
few  of  the  facts  and  figures.  The  Land  Grant  amounted  to  17,430,- 
000  acres.  The  sum  realized  from  the  sale  of  this  scrip  is  reported 
to  have  been  $7,545,405.  This  sum  has  been  greatly  increased  by 
additions  of  grounds,  buildings,  apparatus,  and  money  given  by 
benevolent  individuals.  In  this  way  the  land  scrip  fund,  which  in 
New  York  amounted  to  scarcely  more  than  $600,000,  has  been  aug¬ 
mented  to  not  less  than  about  $6,000,000.  Though  the  university  to 
which  I  refer  has,  perhaps,  been  the  most  fortunate  of  the  land  grant 
institutions,  gifts  with  a  similar  purpose  have  likewise  increased  the 
endowments  in  other  States.  The  result  is  that  the  latest  reports 
show  that  these  colleges  now  employ  nearly  five  hundred  professors 
and  teachers,  and  give  instruction  to  some  five  thousand  students. 
Many  of  these  students  have,  in  turn,  become  teachers  in  other  schools 
and  colleges.  From  the  institution  with  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
be  connected,  I  recall  the  names  of  at  least  twelve  of  the  graduates 
who  have  become  professors  of  some  branch  of  Agriculture  in  other 
schools  of  collegiate  grade.  In  a  similar  way,  the  other  land  grant 
colleges  are  disseminating  knowledge  on  those  great  subjects  which 
were  especially  named  in  the  bill. 

But  this,  of  course,  has  been  but  a  small  part  of  the  work.  Thous¬ 
ands  of  young  men,  educated  in  the  various  branches  of  Agriculture 
and  Mechanical  Science,  have  gone  forth  to  engage  in  the  practical 
duties  of  life,  and  thus  have  disseminated  and  multiplied  the  knowl¬ 
edge  they  have  received.  The  work  is  to  go  on  with  ever  accelerat¬ 
ing  vigor,  and  thus  there  will  be  sent  out  a  continued  succession  for 
all  future  time. 

There  is  another  feature  of  the  benefits  received  from  this  great 
measure  that  ought  not  to  be  overlooked.  I  refer  to  the  fact  that 
centres  of  agricultural  knowledge  have  been  established  in  all  the 


15 


States  of  the  Union.  The  science  of  agriculture,  before  almost  ab¬ 
solutely  unknown  by  the  masses  of  the  people  has  come  to  be  in 
some  measure  at  last  respected  and  even  honored.  The  agricultural 
necessities  of  the  country  have  been  made  more  apparent.  To  some 
thousands  of  young  men  the  stupendous  fact  is  now  taught  that  na¬ 
ture  will  not  be  cheated  of  her  rights,  and  that  for  everything  you 
take  out  of  the  soil,  you  must  put  something  back,  or  the  time  will 
come  when  nature’s  cashier  will  cease  to  honor  your  drafts,  and  you 
will  end  in  bankruptcy. 

And  what  a  field  for  such  teaching  there  is  ;  look  at  the  statistics 
of  our  Agricultural  Department.  In  every  one  of  the  States,  in  the 
North,  in  the  South,  in  the  East  and  even  in  the  West,  the  yield  per 
acre  of  all  the  great  cereal  crops  has  been  steadily  declining  since 
the  early  years  of  the  Century.  The  American  farmer  has  impover¬ 
ished  the  soil, — and  then  gone  West.  It  is  not  certain  that  this  pro¬ 
cess  has  even  yet  been  arrested.  The  last  statistics  available  for 
general  comparison  are  not  very  reassuring.  If  the  New  England 
States  have  held  their  own,  it  has  not  been  by  means  of  improved  ag¬ 
riculture,  but  by  the  general  establishment  of  manufactories.  The 
same  process  has  been  going  on  that  converted  many  of  the  fertile 
lands  of  Virginia  into  pine  barrens.  As  we  all  know  too  well  thou¬ 
sands  of  acres  in  the  Eastern  States  have  been  abandoned  as  practic¬ 
ally  worthless.  Meanwhile  the  streams  of  immigration  and  emigra¬ 
tion  have  been  going  on.  The  Irish  and  the  Germans  have  come  to 
Massachusetts  ;  but  the  farmers  of  Massachusetts  have  gone  to  New 
York  and  Ohio,  the  people  of  New  York  and  Ohio  have  gone  to  In¬ 
diana  and  Illinois,  and 'the  people  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  have  gone 
to  Kansas  and  the  farther  West.  Ever  westward  has  been  the  move¬ 
ment  until  the  current  has  been  arrested  on  the  slopes  of  the  Pacific. 
At  length  there  is  no  West,  to  whose  virgin  soil  we  may  flee.  Our 
farmers  no  longer  have  the  choice  between  remaining  poor  or  moving 
toward  the  setting  sun  ;  they  have  the  other  alternative,  the  one 
which  has  long  confronted  the  farmers  of  the  old  world,  remaining 
poor  or  a  more  perfect  knowledge  of  the  conditions  under  which  na¬ 
ture  will  yield  a  bounteous  and  profitable  return. 

Then  look  at  another  fact.  In  many  regions  of  our  country  the 
same  desolating  process  is  going  on  that  has  reduced  the  fertile  fields 
about  the  Mediterranean  to  sterile  deserts.  The  trees  are  being- 
swept  away  and  thus  we  attempt  to  frustrate  the  methods  by  which 
an  all  wise  Providence  designed  that  the  moisture  in  the  deep  soil 


t 


16 


should  be  taken  up  into  the  plant  and  cast  off  into  the  clouds  to  be 
returned  again  as  rain.  What  has  been  the  result?  The  rainfall  has 

t  • 

been  diminished,  the  showers  which  heaven  still  does  not  refuse  to 
furnish,  instead  of  being-  welcomed  by  the  soft  verdure  of  forests 
and  cultivated  fields  and  lovingly  kept  in  the  soil  for  the  good  of  all 
animal  and  plant  life,  is  repelled  by  parched  hill  sides,  so  that  it 
shoots  off  in  angry  torrents  and  is  soon  once  more  in  the  lakes  and  the 
great  rivers  and  the  oceans  beyond.  Thus  by  a  perfectly  explicable 
method  our  climate  is  undergoing  a  change  and  it  is  the  change  which 
in  some  of  the  regions  of  the  old  world  has  caused  the  sands  to  drift 
over  regions  that  were  once  the  homes  of  a  prosperous  people. 

And  yet  however  great  the  difficulties  may  seem,  there  is  no  ten¬ 
dency  of  nature  that  is  more  amenable  to  the  influence  of  man’s  ap¬ 
preciative  intelligence.  Everybody  remembers  Emerson’s  allusion  to 
the  ability  of  the  English  b}^  the  planting  of  trees  on  the  borders  of 
Egypt  to  bring  rain  again  after  a  drought  of  three  thousand  years. 
We  have  beeu  doing  the  same  thing  in  the  West ;  for  the  planting  of 
trees  and  cornfields  in  Kansas  and  Nebraska  up  to  the  very  frontier 
has  already  pushed  the  rain-line  further  west  by  more  than  a  hundred 
miles.  The  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  are  teem¬ 
ing  with  facts  of  similar  significance.  It  is  estimated,  for  example, 
that  the  loss  from  the  swine  plague  alone  reaches  annually  some  thir¬ 
ty  millions  of  dollars,  and  that  the  value  of  corn  and  wheat  annually 
destroyed  by  fungi  is  not  less  than  the  enormous  sum  of  two  hundred 
millions.* 

These  are  some  of  the  lessons  and  some  of  the  necessities  that  are 
taught  by  experience;  and  yet  they. are  only  hints,  as  it  were,  de¬ 
signed  to  show  how  vast  is  the  domain  that  invites  the  careful  study 
of  our  schools  and  colleges.  It  is  into  this  domain  that  the  people 
were  invited  by  the  wise  Land  Grant  of  1862.  It  is  in  this  domain 
that  the  colleges  and  universities  founded  on  that  grant,  if  they  live 
up  to  their  high  behest,  will  accomplish  results  that  shall  be  for  the 
helping,  if  not  for  the  healing  of  the  nation. 


*  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  for  1SS6,  pp.  11,  24. 


\ 


